Topic 2-The self Jan 16.docx

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School

University of Alberta

Department

Psychology

Course

PSYCO241

Professor

Erik Faucher

Semester

Winter

Description

• The self concept:
– The cocktail party effect. Is the shift of attention when you hear your name.
– The Self­Concept
– The sum total of an individual’s beliefs about his or her own personal attributes. Such
as our values (religious, work, friend etc)
• Self­Schemas
– Beliefs about oneself that guide the processing of self­relevant information. (Like
books are to the library. Book makes a library; our schemas make our self­concept.
They guide the processing of self­concept. They help us to process certain
information, like if you are schematic to self weight then that can help you process
information in food market.)
• The origins of the self concept
– The self has direct ties to our brain especially ties to you brain especially with
memory. (Memory of a guy who mistook his wife for a hate, his bad memories he had
no idea of who he was and his self and how he relates to other. Damage to the brain. ).
Studies have show:
– Certain brain areas become more active when a person view pictures of self vs.
stranger (thus shows that brain is where self is hosted in)
– View self­relevant words verse other word (first, last name, or letters that are similar
to your name etc.)
– Play first person videogame vs. third person
• Do Nonhuman Animals Show Self­Recognition?
– Great apes seem to be capable of self­reflection thus have sense of self (like self
recognition in the mirror they start grooming, pick nose etc. like we do)
– Children seem to recognize themselves between 18­24 months.
– William James’s dual self of the “I” vs the “me”. (Both are distinct part, a dualism.
The me am the thing that is related to the self­concept. Anything that call our, I or
mine. When I look in the mirror we see this is my face. The I, the experiencing agent.
It is what does the experiencing of the world like the eye it does the seeing. The eye
sees the reflection in the mirro)
– Some non­primates have been suggested to engage in self­recognition ( elephant
looked at their mouths more often when mirrors were present)
• The Self as a Social Concept
– The Looking Glass Self: Other people serve as a mirror in which we see ourselves.
(I.e. how do we know that we are funny? Like when people tells us or when people
laugh at my jokes)
– The self is “relational” (we think about how other views us even if they are not
present that shapes how we view yourself)
• Introspection and its Limits
– Introspection: Look inward to your own thoughts, feelings and actions (i.e. why am I
feeling the way I am, or why did I behave the way I did. It is like psychodynamic
theory.)
– Affective forecasting: The process of predicting how one would feel in response to
future emotional events (we usually are wrong in this. Like I am going to get A. Or if
something bad happen)
– Durability Bias: people over­estimate the strength and the duration of their emotional
reactions (i.e. I will be miserable for a month if this bad thing happens when it
happens u only are for couple of hour. The reason for this is the we tend to under­
estimate our resilience. We also tend to under­estimate the amount of help our family nd
provides us. 2 is that we think that we will only think about one thing but in reality
we have many things to think about thus decreasing the effect on us.
• Self­Perception
– Self­perception theory: The theory that when internal cues are difficult to interpret,
people gain self­insight by observing their own behavior. (if you watch a show many
time, like behavior, this leads to attidude of that we like this show. We learn about our
self by perceiving our behavior)
– Self­perception is most likely to occur if the situation does not dictate our behavior.
(Occurs if we are not sure of our motivations. We hang our with someone a lot,
without any motivation, thus we lead to attitude that we like them. If we do so
because of motivation, self perception will NOT occur)
• Self­Perceptions of Emotion
– The Facial Feedback Hypothesis: The hypothesis that changes in facial expression
can lead to corresponding changes in emotion (you just smile, you actually feel
better)
– In an experiment participants rated what they saw as funnier when they were smiling
as apposed to when they were frowning ( psychological change)
– Smiling leads to increased blood flow to the brain, which produces a pleasant state by
lowering brain temperature (thus physiological change)
o Frowning decreases blood flow to the brain, which produces an unpleasant state and
raises brain temperature.
• Self­Perceptions and Body Posture
– Body feedback can provide us with sensory feedback and influence the way we fell
(if we sit straight make you feel active and Expansion makes us feel better on the
other hand Contraction makes us feel bad. For depressed person this makes them feel
worse.
• Self­Perception and Motivation
– Intrinsic Motivation (IM): Behaviors that are performed out of interest or
enjoyment (has to be enjoyable otherwise its not) and Are domain specific (person
like math other like science domain.)
– 1) IM cannot occur if an individual does NOT feel autonomous (you are the source of
your behavior, you are doing the behavior because you want to and its is not coming
because of an outside source)
– 2) IM does NOT depend on reinforcements (i.e. video games playing because you
want to win=reinforcement/outcome=not IM.
– 3) IM will DECREASE or become over justified with external rewards ( the control is
outside of us i.e. no longer # 1, thus we feel we do something for this external
reward= decrease IM.
– In an experiment Participants who received monetary rewards for solving an
interesting puzzle became less intrinsically motivated for the activity than participants
who had done the same activity but without receiving the rewards. Final
compensation received, these participant IM decreases.
– Positive feedback can enhance IM compare to those who do not received feedback.
(Verbal rewards: it is less tangible/less controlling. It tell them that they are competent
thus increase IM. Thus it is a good thing as long as if +)
– Controlling ( if the verbal reward is controlling like good job it is seen as +, vs good
job you did as you should have. This is perceived as controlling, and the person IM is
undermined. vs informational ( verbal reward=good job only)
• Extrinsic Motivation – A broad array of behaviors having in common the fact that activities are engaged in
not for reasons inherent in them, but for instrumental reasons.
– Means to an end
• Social comparison theory:
– People tend to describe themselves in ways that set them apart from others in their
immediate vicinity. (I.e. 1 girl in 10 boy family, she is more likely to say I am a girl
vs. being around 10 girls because it sets her apart. If you change the surrounding, you
are more likely to change their you spontaneous description. )
– Self­Comparison Theory: The theory that people evaluate their own abilities and
opinions by comparing themselves to others.
– When do we turn to others for comparative information? (Uncertain, unclear,
ambiguous. I.e. you got 20 it is ambiguous, as you don’t know out of what. So you
compare it to others for comparative information’s.
– With whom do we choose to compare ourselves? (We do it to people that are similar
to us)
• Culture and the Self­Concept
– Individualism: Virtues of independence and self­reliance. ( unique, stand out,
personal important then group goals, count on yourself only.). Found in US, CND,
AUS, UK, Netherland.
– Collectivism: Virtues of interdependence, cooperation, and social harmony (derive
self esteem from group vs. individual accomplishment. Found in south America,
India, Japan, Korea (east Asian).
– Study: give them an “ I m” statement and then asked them to complete. American ▯
completes it with uniqueness (shy, out going ▯ sticking out), where collectivist▯showed
group harmony/interdependence (fitting it). 2 study: North American, people liked
only 1 shape which was unique vs.
– Study: filled out a survey, and then shown 5 pin and asked take one of them. 1 black
and 4 blue ( standing out vs fitting in mentality). American took the
unique/black/induidulistics ▯ took black pin vs. Collectivistic ▯ took the blue ones.
• Self­Esteem
– The word esteem comes from the Latin Aestimare, which means to estimate or
appraise the self.
– Self­esteem: An affective component of the self, consisting of a person’s positive and
negative self­evaluations.
• Why do we need Self­esteem? (i.e. why psychological need)
– Socio­meter theory: suggests self­esteem is an indicator of whether or not an
individual feels included or exc